“The song of Soongs”: Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

“The song of Soongs”

Published in Indian Express on 25^th February 1989

V. Jwala Narasimha Rao

HISTORY is yet to record such a fascinating story like that of the most powerful and formidable trio of sisters-the Soongs of China. The three Soong sisters literally espoused to, and ended up actively espousing the political views of, the three men who played key roles in shaping China’s destiny in the period of revolutionary instability. “The Song of Soongs”, one of the earliest despatches to the Government of India from China by the late K.P.S. Menon, a distinguished writer and diplomat of India as the Agent-General in 1943 described his memorable experiences with them.

Soong sisters - the three "Hakka Chinese women", were married to the three most powerful persons of China and all of whom were Presidents of China at one time or other. All the three sisters played a major role in influencing their husbands, which, along with their own positions of power, ultimately changed the course of Chinese history. Their father was American-educated Charlie Soong, who made a fortune in banking and printing. Their mother was a descendant of Ming Dynasty. Their three brothers were all high ranking officials in the Republic of China Government. One of them was T. V. Soong, a foreign minister of China for nearly a decade.

Throughout their lifetimes, each one of the sisters followed her own belief in terms of supporting the Kuomintang (KMT) or the Communist Party of China (CPC). In the 1930s, two of them, Soong Ai-ling and Mei-ling were the richest women in China at the time. Both of them supported the Nationalists. Soong-Chiang-Ling later sided with the CPC.

The youngest of the “Trinity of China”, as the Soong sisters were popularly known, Soong Mei-Ling, was none other than Madame Chiang-Kai-shek the wife of the ruler of China for two decades before Mao’s Communists seized power to establish the People’s Republic of China. Later, Chiang-Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and continued to fight the Chinese Communists till his death. Soong Mei-Ling, who was born in 1897 and educated in the United States, became the second wife of Chiang-Kai-shek. Thoroughly westernised in every action of hers, she was charm personified. “She turned on her charm as one turns on an artificial fountain, which rises higher and higher until one is wet with the spray”, said KPS Menon of her. According to her, “The only thing oriental about me is my face”. After converting Chiang-Kai-shek to Christianity, Soong-Mei-Ling married him.

After the death of her husband in 1975, Mei-Ling maintained a very low profile. She emigrated from Taiwan to the suburb of New York City in USA where she kept a portrait of her late husband in full military uniform in her living room. Twenty five years later she sold the estate and moved to her New York City apartment where she spent the rest of her life. She returned to Taiwan only three times. She believed that the Democratic Progressive Party, which later took control of Taiwan, had little reverence for her. Her later year’s life was peaceful but somewhat solitary. She had few visitors and passed her time growing flowers, practicing calligraphy, drawing pictures and reading. Mei-Ling, died in her sleep in October 2004 at the age of 105.

During the Second World War, a number of articles by Soong-Mei-Ling of China were published in many US journals. She was the first Chinese (and only the second woman ever) to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1943. She left such a lasting impression on the American public that they honoured her in a unique way. Her name appeared in the list of the “ten most admired women in the world” till 1967 from the year of her address.

In a conversation with Sir Winston Churchill in Cairo in 1943, when he said to her “India is not, and can never be a nation”, Madame Chiang-Kai-shek reacted sharply and replied, “If she is left to herself, India will become as great and as powerful a nation as the United States”. This was narrated to KPS by Madamissimo-the way she was referred by many-herself. Soong-Mei-Ling passed away in 2004. Mei-Ling was best known as ambassador for China (and later, Taiwan) to the Western world.

Chiang Kai-shek’s undivided effort to eliminate the Communists in China during Japan’s invasion put China in a most perilous state. However, he was convinced by Mei-Ling that the immediate task at that point of time was to join hands with the Communists to fight the Japanese. After the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Communists in China in 1949, Mei-Ling together with her husband and many government and military officials fled to Taiwan. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, she moved to Hong Kong, where she organised the Chinese Women’s Anti-Aggression League.

The eldest among the Soong sisters was Soong Chiang-Ling. Like her younger sister she too had her education in the USA. She married Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen who was 26 years older to her in 1914. Sun-Yat-Sen was leader of the Chinese Kuomintang and the first Provisional President of the Republic of China. When the nationalist Kuomintang party was split up Chiang-Kai-shek, who became the leader of the right-wing group, Soong-Chiang-Ling headed the left wing. Thus she too became an equally influential figure in her own right in Chinese politics.

After the death of her husband, Soong-Chiang-Ling felt that the left-wing Kuomintang members had betrayed the ideals of her husband and quit the party and left for the USSR. She did not accept the idea of her left-wing friends merging with the right-wing of the Kuomintang Party and angrily reacted when the Communists were purged. Consequent to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, she started the China Defence League and organised medical relief and child welfare work particularly in Communist controlled areas of the country.

When Soong-Chiang-Ling was in Hong Kong in 1948, she became the honorary chairperson of an anti Chiang-Kai-shek organisation called the “Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee”. Within a year of this she moved to mainland China when the People’s Republic of China was formed. She was held in high esteem as a sort of link between Sun-Yat-Sen ideals and those of the Communists’ People’s Republic. She was made an important official in the government and was awarded the “Stalin Peace Prize” in 1951 for her work on welfare and peace committees.

Chiang-Ling was subjected to some criticism and trouble from the Red Guards during the 1966 Cultural Revolution as a reaction to her “luxurious” way of living. However, she continued her way of life, enjoying her official position, serving China wherever she was and in whatever capacity she was placed. She died in Peking on 29^th May, 1981.

Another Soong sister, Soong-Ai-Ling was an altogether different character. She married H.H. Kung, a familiar figure in the Chinese nationalist government between 1928 and 1945. In China, the Kungs were known for their money. H.H. Kung succeeded his brother-in-law T.V. Soong (brother of the Soong sisters) as Minister of Finance and co-brother Chiang-Kai-shek as President of China for a brief period in 1938 (during the Sino-Japanese war) till Chiang resumed the presidency. Madame Kung was to marry Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen but she preferred money to power and so married Kung, who was one of the richest men in the world in his days.

In 1937 when the Second Sino-Japanese war broke out, all three of them got together after a 10 year separation in an effort to unite the KMT and CPC against the Imperial Japanese army. Soong Ai-ling devoted herself to social work such as helping wounded soldiers, refugees and orphans. The sisters frequently visited schools, hospitals, orphanages, air raid shelters and aided war torn communities along the way.

According to Mr. K.P.S. Menon, there used to be a saying in China that Madame Chiang loved power, Madame Kung money and Madam Sun-Yat-Sen China. The world today is much different from the days when the three Soong Sisters became China’s most powerful women – making headlines around the world.